Girls in Trouble I like

Recently in  The Believer, Judy Berman wrote a piece called “Concerning the Spiritual in Indie Rock” which includes many examples of spirituality cum hip: in Animal Collective, Sufjan Stevens, The Mae Shi, Neutral Milk Hotel, Arcade Fire, Danielson, Ponytail, Dirty Projectors, and Yeasayer. A few of the lyricists are explicitly Christian, some are formerly Christian, and others create spiritual pieces. (No one she cites either draws heavily from religious texts or identifies as Jewish.) She says that as music fans we become worshipers.

Indie rock is (one way) how we contemplate life questions/spiritualist in our secular culture:

These days, mainstream religion feels largely divorced from metaphysics. The language of good and evil has been co-opted in the service of countless holy wars, and Christian leaders spend more time railing against gay marriage than debating the nature of the human soul. Those of us who can’t buy into these crusades must find other marvels to contemplate. As Keating recognizes, art may help to fill a void left by organized religion: Indie rock’s predominantly young, urban, and irreligious audience kneels to worship at the foot of a stage. Bible study is replaced by ritualistic listening and re-listening to tease out the meaning or simply bask in the bliss of favorite albums.

Girls in Trouble, who I saw first at the Bushwick Reading Club (The Bible), uses the Bible to great effect. By taking on the voices of women characters from Old Testament stories who are often mistreated, exiled, and victimized, singer and violinist Alicia Jo Rabins complicates stories of good and evil by filling them with feeling. Alongside her Aaron plays upright bass.

She adopts the voices of Miriam, Jephthah’s daughter, and others. Atop anguished melodies, Rabins’ easily discerned lyrics are pained yet poetic. The simplicity of the story lines and the desert fauna diction blend happily in folk songs sung to God. Though traditionally voiceless, the women and their plight and power is pretty moving.

Rabins introduces each song as a distinct character. “This next song is about how I found myself in the tent of the enemy general in my favorite dress with a knife strapped to my leg.” I tried to remember which story that was. Delilah and Samson? It was like Amish trivia night.

The Bible is epic, sincere, and de rigeur -Rabins blogs about how The Mountain Goats are coming out with a record of Biblical songs.

Listening to Girls in Trouble doesn’t bring you to a state of reverie. It’s not techno or soundscapes or whatever you call The Mae Shi.  It’s personal, tragic, and slow. The spirituality doesn’t come from a whipped up frenzy where “time and space get disrupted” or “band and audience members fuse into an army of true believers, baptized in sweat and whinnying in tongues (Berman).”

Even if I don’t believe in God, hearing Rabins’ embodiment of devotion made me a stunned witness of centuries of study, worship, questioning, and storytelling — the actions that got the original girls in trouble and what ushered the potent songs by the new Girls in Trouble.

Girls in Trouble play again at Pete’s Candy Store on August 27th. Their album comes out on JDub records in October. They live near where we live.

Excellent Bar Mitzvah Invite!

I was recently commissioned to create invitations for my nephew’s Bar Mitzvah.

I would like to thank my mom and sister for trusting me with this assignment; Kate’s Paperie for letting me peruse 4 binders of top quality Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitations; Chabad.com for pointing out the sole salient moment from David’s Torah portion, Shoftim*; Misha for helping me brainstorm how to carve the fig tree and when to stop; the guy at the Pearl Art paper department who always extends patience and told me of a paper cutter open to the public at the Kinko’s by Astor Place; Cooper Union’s Continuing Education Vandercook Letterpress class taught by Dan from The Arm for providing guidance and presses manifestly expediting printing the tree; the U.S. Post Office on 112th and Broadway for so quickly vending 44 cent stamps, even though the current selection is not great; God for providing much rain in the last 2 weeks that might have impaired some envelopes en route to California.

*”When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you into the besieged city? Only trees which you know do not yield food may be destroyed; you may cut them down for constructing siegeworks against the city that is waging war on you, until it has been reduced.” Deuteronomy 20:19-20. (ed. Plaut, UAHC)

Other choice moments in Shoftim (Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9) include “Nor must you show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (Deut. 19.21) And the part commanding you to build a remote city for people guilty of manslaughter (vs. murder).

Obama Llama in Stillness is The Move

How can we get through tough times? By sticking together.

“Stillness is the Move” by Dirty Projectors accommodates many interpretations. At first listen, the female vocalist is telling her partner that she will always love him/her, that instead of longing for bigger and better things, she will remember what they’ve gone through.

On the other hand, isn’t this song urging us to employ patience with Obama?

The song starts by tracking the arc of generation-me’s political engagement. Obama’s candidacy marked the turn from “No opinion about anything” to idealism “I know we’ll make it after the wait.”

The lead singer, Amber Coffman, acknowledges his long-term economic stimulus program, even declaring her participation: taking whatever job is available for now.

Maybe I will get a job
Get a job as a waitress
Maybe waiting tables in a diner

The highest note in the chorus emphasizes the president’s can-do optimism. Echoing last summer’s campaign slogan “Yes We Can” in the contrapositive, the song goes:

There is nothing we can’t do[!]

She is clearly in a supporting role, a woman/citizen who takes pride in her loyalty.

I’ll see you along the way baby
The stillness is the move

Despite the urgent need for change, for an “even higher mountain,”  Dirty Projectors advocate endurance. We’ve already experienced many crucial moments, but this is yet another, when the most important action is to vigorously support. Being still needn’t imply a return to apathy but rather steadfastness and perseverance. Indeed, with a farseeing perspective there is movement in stillness.

Recently, many of us have conversed with a mouthful of criticism regarding President Obama. Where’s my healthcare? Why so slow on Guantanamo? What the hell Don’t Ask Don’t Tell? The song is a rebuke of Kevin Baker’s harsh article in this month’s Harper’s:

Obama’s failure would be unthinkable. And yet the best indications now are that he will fail.

In Brooklyn yesterday, Dirty Projectors played at a Pool Party. And, Jewishly speaking, this is well timed because the haftorah portions of recent weeks bring home the same point: that we as a people should pause the bickering, look beyond temporary difficulties, and believe in the cause: another even higher mountain.

Finally, let’s consider the line, The question is a truth.

We can’t arrive at a truth without first asking a question, nicht wahr? There is no certainty without doubt as there is no stillness without movement. Obama represents, for the first time in 8 years, a clear choice by America. To the question, Who do you want as president? we answered “Obama,” while we originally didn’t have a genuine opportunity to answer “W. Bush.” Hence, Obama, by being linked to a question, is a truth.

A truth must be preceded by a question, doubt, uncertainty. That’s why “Isn’t life under the sun just a crazy crazy crazy dream?” resounds more than “Life under the sun is a crazy crazy crazy dream.” The listener feels empowered by the Socratic method, and brings his own answer, a truth far more powerful than one foisted upon him.

This importance of doubt underlies God’s decision to make the Jews wander for 40 tribulating years. Their loyalty both to God and Moses comes from deep within. For nomadic people wandering the wilds, ownership is immaterial. What you own most of all is your own set of beliefs. From hipsters to Hebrews, woodlands to deserts, SLOUCHING TOWARDS BUSHWICK.

One of the ultimate Jewish Graphic Design Challenges

I have been hosting Shabbat dinners and for almost all of them I send out a hilarious jpeg telling people to come dine.

But guess what?

My oldest sister’s oldest son is having his Bar Mitzvah late this summer and I have been summoned to design a Bar Mitzvah invitation and to manufacture 50 of them.

My qualifications are:

• I use photoshop more than anyone in my family
• I have more free time than anyone in my family
• I have outstanding taste

But I am frightened. What if I don’t have good taste? What if the reason I didn’t take graphic design classes is because I’m not interested in it? Why do they (my sister and mom) think I can illustrate a design and print it on 50 cards with a linoleum block? And why do they think I am a budget option?

Here are my goals for the invitations:

• to arrive in a timely manner to guests
• to be legible, concise, typo free
• to be sophisticated without being too trendy, tongue-in-cheek, overly Judaic, minimalist, precious, or overreaching
• to appear as though the creator does not live under a invitation-for-Jewish-or-other-major-life-event rock
• to exceed the expectations of my immediate family members
• to pave the way for future gigs as a solvent Judaica purveyor

Jerusalem of Gold and/or Empty Cisterns

“Yerushalayim shel Zahav” (Jerusalem of Gold) is a popular Israeli song, written by Naomi Shemer in 1967, the year of The Six-Day War in which the State of Israel captured the Golan Heights, the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai and East Jerusalem. Its title refers to an expression found frequently in the halachic discourse which described a “golden diadem surrounded by turrets in the shape of the walls of Jerusalem with which women used to adorn themselves.” (http://www.jerusalemofgold.co.il/jewishsources.html)

Whether the laws of Shabbat permitted women to wear such a crown is subject to much debate in the Talmud (i.e. can you trust a woman to simply wear the jewelry or will she almost certainly remove it to show it off to a friend? Rabbi Eliezer’s answer: No, for only classy ladies wear crowns of gold, and classy ladies simply exude class and will feel no need to brag).

Jerusalem of Gold "Kosher Compass"

Beloved Rabbi Akiva was a fan of such jewelry and gave a crown to his wife when he (finally!) grew rich. In the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Nedarim, it is written: 

The daughter of Kalba Savu’a betrothed herself to Rabbi Akiva. When her father heard thereof, he vowed that she was not to benefit from any of his property. Then she went and married him in winter. They slept in a straw bin, and he had to pick out the straw from her hair. He said to her: If I had the means, I would give you a Jerusalem of Gold.

Rabbi Akiva's Shitty Tomb in Tiberias (see below)

Anyway, despite the fact that Naomi Shemer stole the title from the Talmud and the tune from Pello Joxepe, a Basque lullaby (for which she felt bad and was forgiven), it is a lovely song and has been performed over the years by numerous artists, Israeli and otherwise (Phish, par example). Here is Ofra Haza, a famous Israeli singer who died of AIDS in 2000, performing a version of the song at Israel’s 50th Anniversary Celebration:

And here is Shuly Natan’s rendition (the original from 1967, I believe, see the long hair)

I’ve pasted the lyrics below. Though their description of pines and mountain air does capture some of Jerusalem’s magic, they also perpetuate a fallacy from early Zionist narratives about the land of Palestine, namely that it was a vacant wasteland, void of human presence and civilization. Herzl summarized the premise of Zionism as “a people without a land for a land without a people.” Note that Ofra Haza performed the piece in a model of the Old City while standing just next to the Al-Aqsa Mosque… Here is a post from The Lede, the NYTimes blog, about how politicians, even today, use Mark Twain’s descriptions of the land of Palestine in the late 1800′s as an empty backwater of the Ottoman Empire when making arguments about the legitimacy of the Palestinian nationalist narrative.

Twain wrote, of Palestine under the Ottomans:

These unpeopled deserts, these rusty mounds of bareness that never, never, never, do shake the glare from their harsh outlines…; that melancholy ruin of Capernaum: this stupid village* of Tiberias, slumbering under six funereal palms… Jericho the accursed lies a moldering ruin today, even as Joshua’s miracle left it more than three thousand years ago.

I wonder if Naomi Schemer read Twain (or one of the many people who have quoted these ellipsis-heavy passages). I also wonder if Joyce did. He wrote this of the Land of Palestine, in Ulysses:

A barren land, bare waste. Vulcanic lake, the dead sea: no fish, weedless, sunk deep in the earth. No wind could lift those waves, grey metal, poisonous foggy waters. Brimstone they called it raining down: the cities of the plain: Sodom, Gomorrah, Edom. All dead names. A dead sea in a dead land, grey and old. Old now. It bore the oldest, the first race. A bent hag crossed from Cassidy’s, clutching a naggin bottle by the neck. The oldest people. Wandered far away over all the earth, captivity to captivity, multiplying, dying, being born everywhere. It lay there now. Now it could bear no more. Dead: an old woman’s: the grey sunken cunt of the world.

Though it is true that the fully-articulated idea of Palestinian Nationalism as such did not exist until the late 1920s or early 1930s, it is certainly not true that the land of Palestine was a wasteland, or that, as Shemer writes, there was no one to visit the Temple Mount (uhhh where did that Big Mosque and Dome come from???). There were, of course, many Arabs living in Jerusalem, and though I imagine that most Jews vacated the city between ’48 and ’67, there were plenty of Jews living in the city throughout the 19th century. The way they lived, pulling carts laden with odd foods through narrow winding streets while wearing dirty clothing, was disturbing to the Western Jews who immigrated during the Mandate Period (if you want to learn more about that I am happy to print and bind a copy of my thesis for you), but that they lived there is without question.**

This is Cairo

*Tiberias, based on my experiences, is still stupid, though perhaps less of a village than it was. Its tacky, near-vacant storefronts and the way Akiva and Maimonides’ tombs have crumbled certainly serves to undermine its position as one of the four holy cities. As did the lipstick-kiss covered walls of the hostel room there, in which I struggled to make out the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics on its tiny staticky tv.

** Wikipedia tells me that, as I assumed, the Jews living in the Old City of Jerusalem were expelled when Jordan took control of it in ’48, and that furthermore, contrary to agreements, Jews (Israelis?) were not allowed access to any of the holy sites in the Old City from ’48 to ’67.

Click here to download one of my favorite versions of the song, by The Sabras, who are American.

Who runs American Judaism?

Shabbat Shalom Poster. Didactic and Well Wishing

I went looking for vintage ware in St Louis at Retro 101 (2303 Cherokee St.) with Jordan and he found this for me!  I didn’t buy it because I thought it would make my apartment look like Heeb. And it cost $40 (in case you have one and want to sell it).  The Union of American Hebrew Congregations (founded in 1873) distributed this poster in 1971.

There are two camps of Jewish-Americans: people affiliated with Jewish organizations and those who aren’t.  Or, the segment  that was once affiliated (having a Bar Mitzvah, going to camp, etc.) and now live outside the orbit of Jewish organizations. There are also over 200,000 people who have gone to Israel on Birthright, which might be the most organized Jewish experience they ever had. Btw fyi:

In 2003, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations was officially renamed the Union for Reform Judaism. The former name was dropped because it reflected Wise’s unrealized expectation that the whole of American Jewry would eventually affiliate with the Reform movement, and also because it failed to acknowledge the Reform-affiliated congregations outside the United States. Today, the organization is often referred to simply as “the Union.” As of 2005, some 900 synagogues were affiliated with it.

In the U.S. there are an estimated 1.1 million Reform Jews out of about 5 million total Jews. The URJ says that the 900 congregations affiliated with it all stand for the same core values.

• A God-centered Judaism that combines respect for Jewish law and Jewish tradition with a progressive religious outlook designed to remain relevant and meaningful to contemporary North American Jews
• A commitment to Torah (lifelong Jewish learning), Avodah (worship of God through prayer and observance), and G’milut Hasadim (the pursuit of justice, peace, and deeds of loving kindness) – expressed in lifelong study of the sacred Jewish texts, creativity and spirituality in worship, and social action fulfilling the vision of the Prophets
• A commitment to klal Yisrael, the entirety of the Jewish people, with special focus on the people and the state of Israel, and on world Jewry, particularly on the needs of Progressive congregations everywhere
• A community-focused religion that honors the personal autonomy of the individual and the institutional autonomy of the congregation, within a framework of egalitarianism and inclusiveness

Consistent with these goals should be a program to sell/give holiday related posters designed to remain relevant and meaningful to contemporary North American Jews. The poster below spread like wildfire in trendy kitchens, bathrooms, and design blogs last year. What if it said Shabbat Shalom on the bottom in Hebrew?

A poster such as this with URJ 2009 in fine print would enable someone like me to be affiliated with the umbrella organization without going to synagogue. And when would I? Friday nights I celebrate Shabbat at home with a festive dinner party ranging from 2-20 attendees, like the 1971 poster suggests. I guess I would be interested in a book club that met in a library or chapel of a Brooklyn synagogue…

Sometimes it’s lonely to identify as Jewish without a synagogue or organization-centered community to identify with. There is also no Jewish inspired art in my apartment (except for Shabbat candlesticks that spend the week on a Buddha alter).

Does anyone make or have a Shabbat Shalom poster? Have you been to someone’s house and seen a poster such as this? Was it hung with the tongue-in-cheek twee sincerity of K.C.&C.O.? Or with the seriousness of a framed Chagall poster?

Do you need a synagogue to be or feel really Jewish? Does the synagogue have to be affiliated with the URJ? Does religion and community feel more relevant and real when it is represented in a graphic poster?

Jewish Typography

How do you make a website look cool and Jewish? It’s a fun challenge. Nextbook redesigned their website so that online content (vs. information about their book series) is published in Tablet, an online magazine (on which you can find a blog, The Scroll…word play is fundamental to Judaism).

They even made a video! of the designers discussing how they chose distinctive typefaces for each division of Nextbook Inc.

They (a firm called Project Projects) looked to a design house from the 70s for typefaces that would hearken a time when print media and Woody Allen films were a la mode.

See? The word is an amalgam of diluvian and Firefox era methods of communication. The serifs and 70s stylization conjure  a picture of Jewish intellectual life of post-Vietnam lower Manhattan: Sontag, Annie Liebowitz, Norman Mailer, and an off-Broadway actress smoking cigarettes. The font is just goofy enough for you to know the editors of Tablet are in on the joke; after all, they didn’t go with the more authoritative sounding “Tablets.” With the preponderence of tabs in our lives (at least in mine), the latter syllable of this title asserts itself. “-let” Just a little bit of tab for a little part of you that is a Jew.

Wanted: Hip Bible

From a publishing point of view, the Bible is a challenging though dependable product. But the markets are changing. So-called cool people are seeking the Bible out.

So many people read the Bible for religious, literary, historical, and other reasons. What if you are just curious? Is there a copy for you? Should it just have the text, no footnotes? Which books to include? Which translation? Who writes an introduction, if any at all? Do you want some geopolihistorical context?

There could be a greatest hits edition:

Genesis

Exodus

Esther

Jonah

Job

Song of Songs

Ecclesiastes

Samuel 2

Matthew

John (for contrast)

There could be a pocket edition:

Genesis

Exodus

One of the Gospels

(For example, now out of print, Schocken put out “Four Strange Books of the Bible: Jonah, Daniel, Koheleth, and Esther” edited by Elias Bickerman.)

If you are reading the Bible to study Shakespeare, then you would want the translation he read, The Geneva Bible (1560). But if you are reading the Bible as a companion to pop culture (Year One, with Michael Cera and Jack Black (forthcoming), Life of Brian, Evan Almighty, Blogging the Bible, Ladies and Gentleman, The Bible!), there is not yet a handy, efficient Bible for your needs.

What Bibles do people have access to?

• One bought for school, usually The New Oxford Annotated Bible 
• The Torah received from synagogue upon Bat Mitzvah, W.G. Plaut’s
• One given for free on the sidewalk, typically from Christians
• The King James Bible
• Children’s Picture Books of The Most Exciting Bible Stories
• Online versions

Other unsatisfactory Bible options:

• The Bible for Dummies
• Anything that says The Holy Bible, Worship, Life Application, or Early Readers
• A lovely Modern Library edition of The Song of Songs (nice, but exclusive)

The two I have (see thumbnails above) are unwieldy and have sincere book cover art. How can I bring either to a cafe with my macbook? Each page is like a map with bolded margin headers, italics, superscript, and footnotes. The Table of Contents is difficult to maneuver as is the pagination, which in TNOAB restarts the page count after the Hebrew Bible for the New Testament. It’s confusing who wrote the Bible in the first place, but there is the added confusion of who edited the volume in your hand.

Subway ride speculation informs us that many palm-sized Bibles are available– in Hebrew, Spanish, and English. But reading these implies faith in a divine being.

Someone must have thought of this and will soon release a hip Bible. Media companies can only spew satirical commentery on a famous book for so long before they cash in on the book itself. Cover art is crucial here. It could go the overdesigned typology route like The New Kings of Nonfiction; nostalgic vintage Penguin style (shown here in a Harry Potter redesign by M.S. Corley, which you should click); comic book illustration a la Penguin series; minimalist like NYRB books. Riffing on the iconic hardbound Gothic font Bible is taken by Plotz’s The Good Book.

The Bible is not long. You know half of it anyway. It’s like reading Grimm’s Fairy Tales or Mother Goose. I can only assume Michael Cera will be funnier if the audience knows more of the Bible.

Exodus Pillows

(Click image for full size and details)

Top Left:At dawn the sea returned to its normal depth.Exodus 14.27

Top Right: And from the day after the sabbath, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the elevation offering, you shall count off seven weeks; they shall be complete. You shall count until the day after the seventh sabbath, fifty days; then you shall present an offering of new grain to the LORD.Leviticus 23.15-16

Bottom Left: And the Lord said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. Exodus 4.21

Bottom Right: Moses cried out to the LORD; and the LORD showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. Exodus 15.25.

Hardened Heart

Exodus 4.21

And the Lord said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.